sunworshipper,

You'll find lots of information and opinion about costs of the following topic: Cost of Turkey this year.

Darren

Hello Everyone, I've been a lurker for way too long, now I'm joining in!

We just returned from our first visit to Turkey last night and we had a fantastic time! Since our daughter was born 9 years ago, our holidays have been to the States to visit my family and within the UK. Now that DD is 9, we decided the time was right to broaden our horizons.

We stayed in a villa in Ortakent, near Bodrum, and did our reading up before we left but possibly not enough because we were very surprised at how expensive things are in Turkey, both in the supermarket and especially eating out!

Our first meal out was definitely a learning experience! We visited the lovely, enchanting village at Gumusluk and every single restaurant owner was trying to get us in their establishment. They were all very friendly and at the time I felt bad that we couldn't have eaten at each of their establishments, but now I know we couldn't have afforded to!

The owner of the restaurant was showing us all the fish in his cabinet, speaking a bit faster than we could take it all in, and we thought he said a meal for the 3 of us would be about 20 turkish lira each which we thought was a good deal. We each had a starter, 4 teas, 2 turkish coffees and one glass of juice. No alcohol, no dessert. Imagine our disbelief when the bill arrived and it was 275 TL! The fish was 20 TL PER KILO. We bought a whole fish for the 3 of us, and it was 160 TL. Now that we know better from our experience, we would ask more questions before we eat.

The other thing we noticed in all the restaurants is that they show your their cold mezzas in the window, but there are no prices. In one instance, this doubled the price of our meal. The other thing is that at a meat restaurant we each ordered a starter, and not only did they bring those, they brought out 3 additional ones which they said they chose for us. Gullible us thought they were being nice until we got the bill to see that they charged for everything, even the things we didn't order.

So lesson learned. We were newbies and put it down to experience, but next time we will definitely ask questions and saying a lot more "No thank yous"!

Just read your post Karenbuk and it reminded me of our experience at the fish market in Fethiye. Here you chose and pay for your fish and then take it to one of the restaurants in the square who will cook it for you and you just pay for the salad, bread, not sure how much that is supposed to be (not much) but they have a helper guy who also talks very fast, is very charming and convinces you that he will provide a fine selection of starters and salads for your fish. You end up going along with him and have no idea how much you are spending. Each time we have been there we have gone with a big crowd and consumed quite a lot of wine etc, the bill is always quite a lot. (can't remember now exactly) We always have a great time and say it was definately worth it but I know its way above what the turkish customer would be paying. The restaurant is frequented by mostly turkish customers but they want to cash in on the tourists, so you don't get to see the menu.

Its not typical though, most places have boards showing prices outside and clearly on the menu.